2020 Grafting Thread

I snapped some photos this morning. It seems to be growing at a reasonable rate.

I have g41 from both locations, but have only grafted to the Raintree g41. It is supposedly pretty dwarfing.
The mixture is some cheapness I cobbled together. The base runs ~ 1/2 the price of Miracle gro potting mix. I have some amendments left over from when I was pretty serious about organic container gardening, and common gardening supplies. I could have left out the cottonseed and mycos, but I had them laying around.

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Winter Banana on P.18. Seems like most of the scion I received from Geneva had fruiting buds on them. The Winter Banana has been the most persistant bloomer:


Geneva Crab on M.7, another one that was blooming, but that seems more common on the crabs:

Roberts Crab on M.106.

Overall, everything grafted this year is doing well. My arch enemy, Dudley (aka Northstar) failed on all 6 grafts again. Not sure why this one won’t take for me. I even had some scions that were over a year old take.

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It’s nice to watch your orchard from the start. It’s going to be a large one. Your going to have so many apples. It will be neat to see when it’s in it’s productive years. Your going to have a lot of fun, and hard work too. Thanks for sharing!

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So, I’ve read newly grafted rootstocks should not be fertilized at all. The theory is that, if they receive better care in the garden bed than when they are ultimately transplanted, they will not “thrive” and they may become sickly, or die at their final destination(?) Is this an old wives’ tale? Should I give my baby apple trees a dosing of triple 10? I was late getting my B-118 (x20) and Antonovka (x11) starts planted this year (putting up the fencing), so they’ve only been in the bed about three weeks (Montana). The B-118 (from Cummin’s) had better root systems to begin than the (Fedco) Antonovka, and the B-118 are growing more quickly. Of my 31 starts, 3 are still kind of “iffy,” a couple more “maybe-ish,” and the rest have shoots one to four inches in length so far and look pretty good to me. Could be that the 85 degree heat with 30 MPH winds the day after planting, followed by 55 degree driving rains and 60 MPH winds in the following days might be a factor. :cold_sweat: So then, should I give them some triple 10 ahead of the better weather to come, or follow that advice from the “experts” who write the books…and just let my trees go all year without any help? I have a number of 2 y/o trees [still] in pots which have shoots from this year’s grafts over a foot long already! And there were many more of those before the deer came by the night before putting up my fence.:sweat_smile: Aa-a-gh! Live and learn, eh?:persevere: Thanks in advance for the advice.

Sloppy chip bud graft on a Cherry rootstock sucker.

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It doesn’t look to sloppy to me. Looks like a keeper. good Job!

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I have lots of respect for nurseries that churn out hundreds of chip budded trees. It is too complicated/precise of a graft for me.

If you want to see some crazy fast chip buds watch this video (at the 1 minute mark):

https://youtu.be/BBN-hW9Pb8Q?t=58

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Just an update…these chip buds were place last summer (july/aug) and started growing this spring… So far this (i think it’s Satsuma) has put on about 2 feet of growth…you can see some peaches near it that are also chip buds from last summer growing on same tree… all on K1. K1 is nice for budding because it sends out a nonstop supply of new wood to bud onto/on the other hand you need to prune it a lot…

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Well I’m finally ready to call it, my pecan grafts took! I’ve read a lot about how much harder nut trees are to graft than fruit trees, and this was my first time ever trying the 4-flap graft but I went 3 for 3 on some in-ground seedlings this spring. They sulked forever without even any bud swell, but I kept rubbing off growth from the rootstock, didn’t give up on them, and they finally woke up. They’ve all got 2" of growth now and all I have to do is keep the deer and birds from breaking them off. Here’s hoping!

Big thanks to @Barkslip for the wood!

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YO PLAYER, nice work!

Big pimpin’ money, fuzzy dice, and carpet on the ceiling!

Dax

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Almost all of my grafts took this year, except on pears and peaches. I got at least one of each variety, except Zard apricot and Indian Free peach. I think those scions ended up being duds. Compared with what my research led me to believe, I was surprised by how easy the apricots and persimmons were, and how low my success was with pears. Peaches and apples performed about as advertised. I definitely learned a lot from my first year grafting, and hope to do more of it in the future.

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I had terrible luck with persimmon this year. Low take rate and most of what did take shriveled up and died after about an inch of growth.

2 things that cause that.

  1. poor scionwood
  2. the reserve (sugars and starches) in good pushed the growth but the graft actually never took.

Dax

It took most of them 5 to 6 weeks to start pushing any growth I never had any take that long before.

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The citrus grafts are taking their own sweet time to wake up (>2 months). Still much better than drying out, which pinches the pocket (shipping cost for CCPP) more than other fruits.

Melogold on Oro Blanco

Trovita on Meyer Lemon (too early, but I’m eager to call it a success :wink:)

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Interesting, I grafted a few scions two weeks ago and they are showing growth already. Must be the weather.

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Others tell me the same. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with my technique. I followed the guidelines from fruitmentor on YouTube and the main differences compared to my other grafts were

  1. Not wrapping the whole scion with parafilm - left out the buds
  2. Covering with aluminum foil for 3 weeks

I’m not sure if any of these contributed to slow growth. I just grafted a couple just yesterday without these changes and using buddy tape. I’ll know soon. Just curious about your setup - what grafting technique did you use? what rootstock/scion? Also how old is the rootstock?

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I have a rather vigorous pommello that I have been grafting over. The original fruit was extremely sour and seedy.

The scions I used are California Rojo Navel (I accidentally broke a branch that I grafted last year) and a second one is a Bearss lime.

Nothing special on the grafting, cleft graft with parafilm for first layer and electrical tape on top for pressure. I only stretched a bit of parafilm at the tip of the scion, didn’t wrap the whole. Two grafts each, of the four total two took, one ‘might’ still make it if it doesn’t dry out first.

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Thanks. I also forgot to mention that my rootstock is still young (1-2 years). I noticed these trees exhibit spaced out growth flushes on them with new shoots appearing from the buds. If the graft was made towards the end of a growth flush, it sits idle until the next one appears. Extra care with watering and fertilizing seems to help (still experimenting). I wonder if older trees grow more continuously throughout the season.

Let me know how Cali. Rojo performs for you. Folks at CRFG I talked to say our coastal mild weather doesn’t let any navel oranges sweeten close to the grocery store version (may be except Fisher). Of course this is a general observation, microclimates may vary

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